NFL 18-game Regular Season Soon: How Would 17-Game Cap Work?
The NFL 18-game regular season is coming. One way to get players to agree to another game is a 17-game cap. But how exactly would that limit work?
We all know the NFL is going to an 18-game regular season, but what if this year was the final 17-game season?
That's what Mike Florio of Pro Football Talk is saying.
The big red flag giving it away? Super Bowl 62 doesn't have a date set yet.
And what could get the deal done? A 17-game cap for players.
NFL 18-game Regular Season Coming in 2027?
The NFL may be moving to an 18-game regular season next year according to Florio.
He said that much on Rich Eisen's podcast last week.
"Super Bowl 62 in Atlanta, they don't have a date for that game yet," Florio said. "It's unheard of to be less than 23 months away from a Super Bowl and not know when it's going to be played...they usually know by now.
"The reason they don't have a date, I'm told, they're holding it open in case they get to 18 games by 2027 and they need to slip it back a week or so. You throw in two byes and then it gets even more complicated."
Florio went on to say he thinks the deal could get done immediately because J.C. Tretter has been named the head of the NFLPA. And that one way to get "the rank and file" NFL players to agree to a longer season is by capping the number of games they play in a season to 17.
More on what problems that would cause in a minute.
What Would an 18-game Regular Season Look Like in the NFL?
An 18-game regular season in the NFL would include:
- Two preseason games, down from the current three
- Two bye weeks for every team
- 16 international games per year (every team to play overseas every year)
- A 17-game maximum for players
Shortening preseason
In 2021, the league went to a 17-game season. That's when they cut the preseason down from four games to only three.
A move to an 18-game regular season would mean cutting the preseason down even further, to a mere two games.
Shortening the preseason has already resulted in worse football to begin the year. We saw it last season when multiple preseason games dressed up as a regular season games.
Two byes
This is the simplest change of the four. Teams would get two bye weeks to rest amid the longer season.
Every team plays overseas every year
This is a big change that Patriots owner Robert Kraft announced in the lead up to Super Bowl LXI.
Overseas games are bad for NFL fans.
Why? They are on too early in the morning. They are incredibly far distances away from fans, meaning almost all true fans can't go to the games. Overseas games usually see the on-field product suffer. And finally, overseas fans just don't care much about the National Football League.
Probably because the "Nation" in the league's name is the United States of America, not Australia or England or Germany or Brazil.
So, why are NFL teams going to play so many games overseas?
Kraft gave away the objective; the NFL already is the most popular TV show in America, and the only way to grow is to become the most popular thing on TV in the world.
"Part of the reason is so we can continue to grow the cap and keep our labor happy," Kraft, who was named in the Epstein Files, explained. "Because we’re sort of getting near the top here, you know, with the [domestic] coverage. Ninety-three of the top 100 programs on television are NFL games.”
17-game cap for players
This is the most interesting proposal of them all when it comes to the NFL's coming 18-game regular season.
Florio says one way to get the players to agree to this longer schedule is by capping the amount of games they play in a year to 17. Which is where they're at currently.
The plan sounds good at face value, but has anyone thought it all the way through?
How Would a 17-game Cap Even Work in the NFL?
A 17-game cap for players makes sense as a negotiating tactic, but it won't work in the real world. Mostly because of roster limitations.
Currently, NFL rosters are made up of 53 players. 48 are active on game days. And there's a 17-player practice squad.
That leaves very little room to make this 17-game cap work.
Depending on the position, it will be more or less difficult to actually implement this rule.
For instance, quarterback is easy; you just start the backup one game. The same can be said for a running back; sit the starter and let the backups get some run.
But what about, say, the offensive line? Is a team going to bench their entire starting line for a game? Or just plan to work one guy out per game over the course of five games to limit the strain on the group?
That's similarly true of the wide receiving corps; does a coach rest his top three guys, call up multiple practice squad receivers, and start them for a game?
And what about, say, the punter, kicker, and long snapper? Teams only carry one of them on the roster and none on the practice squad. That's also true of a fullback for teams who employ them, like the Denver Broncos.
Then you run into questions of strategy as it relates to timing in the season.
Would you sit the quarterback and play the rest of the starters? Or rest the entire offense and basically concede defeat?
Would it be better to simply rest a lot of your starters in the first week of the season, when the team is still gelling anyway, and treat it like a preseason game?
Or, would it be better to wait until late in the year, as by that time guys may have missed a game due to injury anyway?
Waiting until late in the year to rest starters would be a huge risk because the team could suddenly find themselves in a playoff fight, like the Broncos in 2024, needing to win to get in.
Or, maybe coaches decide the best game to rest their starters and fulfill that 17-game maximum is, yes, the overseas game.
Of course, NFL coaches want to win every game their team competes in. The rare exception is Week 18 (soon to be Week 20) when they have the division or No. 1 seed locked up already.
Ultimately, the 17-game limit for players isn't going to work.
The owners would basically be cutting a preseason game, calling it a regular season game, and yet backups would be in, making it...a preseason game.
Undoubtedly, the league is going from 17 games to 18 games eventually. But the players have to agree to it.
This fantastic (and long) piece explains how DeMaurice Smith, the former head of the NFLPA, helped get players to agree to extend the season from 16-to-17 games. (I only read the first 1,000 words or so.)
But, the players were adamant about keeping the season at 16 games. And the league, with the help of Smith, increased it to 17.
From that piece:
He [Smith] had waged loud, public wars with commissioner Roger Goodell while holding private lunches with him. Quietly, often without some of his player reps' knowledge, he had met one-on-one with influential owners such as Jerry Jones and Robert Kraft, and endured months of union infighting. At the end, the CBA passed last March by a slim margin of only 60 votes, boosted by votes from practice-team members, the lowest-paid union members with the most to gain from the new deal's terms.
Tretter, the new head of the NFLPA who was "installed" in Florio's words, will get it done, possibly very soon.
Rich Kurtzman
An 18-game Season Will Water Down the NFL Further
But more isn't always better.
In fact, after moving from 16-to-17 games and cutting from 4-to-3 preseason games, the early regular season contests have regularly been sloppy. We've seen much worse football to start seasons as of late.
That's because those preseason games were a way for players to build chemistry, get on the same page, and get into game shape.
Cutting one preseason game altered teams' preparation enough to hurt the product when the games matter. Cutting a second game will only further exacerbate the issue.
Adding an 18th game will water down the NFL even more.
Week 1 last year was a mess. Not only was the season kickoff–the Eagles-Cowboys—a bad game, but so was the Chiefs and Chargers in Brazil. And the Raiders beat the AFC Champion Patriots that week.
Maybe that's just the reality of professional football. Teams are going to be a little disjointed when the regular season kicks off either way. But teams historically found a way to optimize four preseason games.
Now the first week or two just feel like preseason games.
It's all a ridiculous cash grab by the owners.
Just like when they added the 17th game in 2021, adding yet another points out how they never really cared about player safety in the first place.
Mo' games, mo' money.
Mo' money, no problems for owners.
Just more injuries and wear and tear on players' bodies.
Rich Kurtzman
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Rich Kurtzman was born and raised in Denver Colorado and attended Colorado State University in Fort Collins in the aughts. He's been a professional writer since 2011, covering Colorado State football and men's basketball, as well as the Denver Broncos, for many outlets. Current Denver Broncos work can be found on Mile High Sports. Previous credits include CBS Denver and The USA TODAY Sports Media Group.
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